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Given a composite knot, is it possible to decompose it in prime knots by an algorithm that runs in polynomial time?

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 What is your motivation for this? And what is your understanding of the situation up until now? – David Roberts Dec 13 2011 at 23:56
My understanding of present knowledge is that the answer is it's not known, but highly doubtful that such an algorithm exists. – Ryan Budney Dec 14 2011 at 0:40
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 I think current run-time estimates for known algorithms to construct the prime decomposition of a knot tend to be at least exponential. I'm thinking of normal surface theory arguments. – Ryan Budney Dec 14 2011 at 0:41
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 A straightforward comment is that this problem is at least as hard as recognizing the unknot. (Given a diagram D for knot, form a larger diagram as the "connected sum" of D with a trefoil diagram. The larger diagram represents a composite knot iff D represents the unknot.) – Peter Kronheimer Dec 14 2011 at 13:45
I know that in computational topology, there are several softwares like SnapPea and Regina, designed to help topologists in the resolutions of hard problems. I am studying knot theory in this period and then i would like to know if it is possbile (thanks to these programs or other softwares) to decompose a (non prime) knot by an algorithm that runs in polynomial time! – Gian Dec 14 2011 at 17:53

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